Daycare Redux or The Good News, Bad News Game with daycare

Good news – we got a phone call from a daycare location by my office, they have a space available for our son!

Bad news – We just need to pay about $3,000 to hold the space until July 1 when he actually needs to start going to daycare.

Good news – Another neighbourhood daycare confirmed they have space for T beginning of July!

Bad news – It’s a subsidy spot, so we need to be approved for subsidy by the government to qualify, and the online subsidy calculator says we don’t qualify.

Good news – K called the government and they assured her we qualify!

Bad news – We can’t get approved without an interview, which can only be done 6 weeks before T’s first day of daycare.

So here we are, after multiple phone calls, transfers, emails, websites, FAQ sections and online calculators and still we don’t have a guaranteed spot. Just trying to get our son into daycare has been a lesson in persistence, patience and phone tag. I don’t remember ever having to jump through so many hoops in my life, not to apply to university, not to get married, not even to buy my first house; so why is daycare so convoluted?

Bad news – We are paying more for T to be in daycare, than a family friend is paying to have her daughter in first year university (room and board included)!

Good news – We have a healthy baby boy and are lucky every day to be able to “fight” on his behalf for daycare,